Here is a list of some of the kits that are or were available in the last few years to help model aircraft of the Irish Air Corps in 1/72 scale. Most of these kits (the majority, in fact) don't have IAC decals included and for those you will have to get the various sheets from Maxdecals. Some of the required decal sheets are now no longer available but updated IAC decal sheets being released by Joe Maxwell's Max Decals.This list is by no means definitive and there are a few new kits that will be added to the list soon. The Matchbox HS125 is extremely rare and very hard to find (I spent three years tracking down one) while the Airfix Sea King is included only as a donor of parts for the Sikorsky S-61N conversion. Paul Walsh's Military Models shop in Dublin may have a resin nose conversion required for the Matchbox/Revell Dauphin and the Alouette II is included to represent F-BIRX which belonged to Heli-Union and was used to train the first of the IAC's helicopter pilots.

Supermarine Seafire IIIHighPlanes 7276 Seafire III C (comes with IAC decals)- Note; this purports to build an IAC machine out of the box i.e no arrestor hook. Limited run Injection kit so some modelling skills may be necessary!

Octopus 72043 Seafire III (Short-run Inj. with resin details).Czechmaster CMR1131 Supermarine Seafire III (Resin) Note; this and the Octopus kit above represent Royal Navy Carrier-capable variants, so will need work to represent IAC machines, as they were partially de-navalised.

Sikorsky S-61NWhirlyBits WBA72050 Sikorsky S-61N. (AS SEEN AT SMW 2008!)This is the resin kit Alouette mentioned earlier below. It's not a complete kit, rather a conversion, but a pretty comprehensive conversion at that. It requires the Revell Westland Sea King as a donor, which is good as this has superior detailed donor parts than the Airfix one. As far as I'm aware, the rotor hub, cockpit, wheels and maybe tail rotor are needed from the Revell, all else is supplied in resin (including complete fuselage and rotor blades), white metal and photo etch. A boxtop pic can be found here; linkyInbox review can be seen at the end of this thread HERE

Airfix 03043 Sea King (conv)Transport Wings also have/had a conversion set for the Sikorsky S-61N. It required the aforementioned Airfix Sea King kit for most of the parts but had a rudimentary fuselage that would require a lot of work. (It might be as easy - or as difficult, depending on your point of view - to kitbash 2 standard Sea Kings, be they Revell, Fujimi or Airfix, into one S-61. There seems to be as much work in the Transport wings conversion. Roy)

July 1981, "The Irish Air Corps, its history and markings" by A.P. Kearns. This issue contains a very comprehensive 22 page article on the history of the IAC. Includes plenty of black and white photos and side-views. (This issue also came with a free decal sheet of IAC markings!)

Very very useful.Thanks for posting. I've got a resin/white metal conversion set for Puma 242 (Nose radar, floatation bags, sponsons) but I can't remember who made it. Heritage I think, but since they changed ownership it isn't listed.

I also edited the above list on 23/09/2008 with some updates.

If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you'll be amazed at the results. George S. PattonThis space is for rent.(Sshhh! Don't tell the Revenue Commissioners, the IMF or the Dept of Finance, or they'll tax my stash!)

George, if you give me that Vulcan kit, 50 notes and a slab of beer I might agree to take the Andy Capp KingAir off you.

Ignore him folks...

Troublemaker! If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you'll be amazed at the results. George S. PattonThis space is for rent.(Sshhh! Don't tell the Revenue Commissioners, the IMF or the Dept of Finance, or they'll tax my stash!)

May I add a few notes? As far as Spitfire IXs are concened, the Italeri is a pretty poor kit in terms of both shape and details. Airfix has a new one in program, should be out before the end of the year. Hasegawa's has some shape issues but is miles ahead of the Italeri offering.A Seafire is also available from Octopus, that is just a brand used by Pavla for some carrier based subjects.I can't see the Vampire listed: CMR has a very nice resin one. There have also been conversions from Aeroclub and Airmodel, to be used with the Heller kit.

Updated list on 23/09/2008. I also took the liberty to put it in a sort of chronological order! Thanks Alouette!

Those marked (D) means they are deleted from the Manufacturers catalog (or in some cases, the manufacturer is deleted!). Some are readily available though, especially the Matchbox Gladiator, Walrus and Lysander, Arii Cessna and some of the Frog/Novo kits, which can be had from kit dealers in the UK. The Cessna and HS 125 appear on ebay from time to time, as do the other Matchbox kits, especially from Hong Kong and Chinese traders.If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you'll be amazed at the results. George S. PattonThis space is for rent.(Sshhh! Don't tell the Revenue Commissioners, the IMF or the Dept of Finance, or they'll tax my stash!)

Roy, thanks for updating the kit list. It looks like the list of kits is fairly complete now. I will go through my magazines in the loft and generate a list of articles that will be of use for IAC-modelling.

Re. the SF-260: yes, there was a vacufom. It was from a compnay called Challenge. They had a big list of post-war italian aircraft, but I think the company disappeared at least 25 years ago. Then there was a kit from a company called "Vetromodelli" in the mid '80s. It was made from fibreglass and appeared more or less like a vacuform. Of course very hard to find nowadays. A resin kit was manufactured more recently by another italian company called Cunarmodel. It's again OOP, but the parts can be seen here:

Updated again, 27 November 2008 with S-61 details, thanks to all for the info so far!

If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you'll be amazed at the results. George S. PattonThis space is for rent.(Sshhh! Don't tell the Revenue Commissioners, the IMF or the Dept of Finance, or they'll tax my stash!)

Joe Maxwell and P.J. Cummins released their new book, The Irish Air Corps, An Illustrated Guide yesterday at Baldonnel. The Minister for Defense and G.O.C. lead proceedings. The book is a must-have volume for anyone building any model of an IAC type. The amount of work that has gone into researching the various types is truly amazing. There are plenty of colour side views of many of the early types flown that will inspire plenty of models. Check it out on the Maxdecals website.

It was first released for public consumption yesterday at the book launch in Baldonnel. At a guess, I'd say it will be making it into the shops in the next two weeks. I will try to get an exact release date and list of stockists and post that info as soon as possible.

There were sample issues of the IAC book at the IMMS show last weekend. Looks great. Cost is 35 euros, which seems good value ot me, given the wealth of stuff in it. Got a chance to talk to the author (Maxwell) and he says they will be in Easons, at the very least, after the bank holiday weekend, and hopefully in other shops soon. I pre-ordered a copy, as did a number of others there at the show. Looks like an essential reference to me. He also says that he intends to re-issue the decals in the autumn.

So will see. I will not comment on it as I am too fussy But looking at the Lysander sample page again... Pity that the colour profile is messed up, sides do not match neither top neither bottow view. Lazyness of the creator of the artwork /?/ Hard to blame Joe Maxwell for this, though.

I've just got back, well it was Thursday, from the launch of Joe Maxwell and Patrick Cummins book "The Irish Air Corps an illustrated guide" ISBN 978-0-9562624-0-0 and I can say with out a doubt it's a Fantastic book! very well researched and illustrated with interior shots and a lot of new photo's not seen before, very good for modeling with new colour illlustrations it's quite expensive, but I'd say well worth it. It was my first trip to Baldonnel, and what a day! it was not just the book launch, but also the handing over to the Ulster Aviation Museum of Alouette 202, very nicely restored it was too. I've never seen so many high ranking officers in one place plus the Minister of Defense! And the Museum, WOW! some really nice stuff, and if that wasn't enough, the ramp outside the hanger was really busy, apart from the IAC stuff there was the Garda EC.135 and Defender, plus a visiting King Air from Martin Baker with a work party to carry out mod's on the PC.9 ejector seats. All in all, a fantastic day.

JohnPS. I forgot to say, I have some nice walk around shots of the Dauphin with one of the rear of the cabin, and the over head panel, if you want them I'll e-mail them.

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